


Her World

by CharmStone127



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 12:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14694426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharmStone127/pseuds/CharmStone127
Summary: Choosing to save the world over one person should be an easy choice to make, but when that one person is more important to you than anyone? The choice is a whole lot harder.





	Her World

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this Monday, finally got finished last night. Thank you to the wonderful [StudioCapsicum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StudioCapsicum/profile) for playing beta for me! Good luck to everyone with tonight's season finale!

_ We either save Coulson, or save the world. _

The words echoed in Melinda’s mind long after the conversation had ended. It was an impossible choice. Rationally, she knew it should be an easy answer; save the world. Millions would die if the future they saw came to pass; one life was surely a small price to pay to prevent it from happening. The trouble was, to her, Phil Coulson  _ was _ the world, and she couldn’t imagine living without him. The years had taken so much from her; friends, her marriage, and even herself, but no matter what happened, she’d always had him. 

After Bahrain he’d been her rock, never giving up on her no matter how much she pushed him away. A part of her had died along with that little girl, and though she would never be quite the same person as she was before, Phil had brought that part of her back to life and given her a way to move on. If it hadn’t been for him, she would have still been stuck in that cubicle.

Hearing he’d died before the New York battle had devastated her beyond words. Whatever frail pieces of herself she had managed to glue back together in the years since Bahrain had shattered, breaking her more completely than she would have ever thought possible. 

When Fury had told her later that Phil wasn’t dead, that they’d revived him, she hadn’t really cared how. All that had mattered to her was that he was alive. What she  _ hadn’t _ liked was keeping the truth a secret. She’d argued with Fury about it, told him she wasn’t comfortable lying about that. Not to Phil. When it had been a choice between that, or letting someone else keep watch over him, she’d agreed. In her mind, and it seemed in Fury’s too, there was no one else who would protect Phil the way she would. She wasn’t going to stay back, sit in her cubicle, and spend her time worrying about him, trusting that someone else was keeping him safe. Really, there hadn’t been a choice at all. 

It hadn’t taken long for them to resume the close relationship they’d once shared. It was natural to them, almost as easy as breathing. Something else had reignited then, too. Something stronger, and far more intimate; old feelings, ones Melinda had pushed aside long ago, before she’d married Andrew. She couldn’t tell him though. Their friendship had become even more important to her than it had been back then, and at any rate, how could she hope to pursue a relationship with someone she was keeping such a big secret from? And so she pushed them aside once more.

Had it got easier or harder to ignore those feelings over the years? Really, she wasn’t sure. In a way it was easier, the happiness their friendship brought her outweighing all else, masking the part of her heart that yearned for more. But then there were times when it seemed almost impossible to hold back any more. There were little moments, such as when they’d danced, or all the times they would talk privately, open and honest about things in a way they never were with others, when she’d wonder how he would react if she told him. There were times when they’d been separated, when she would fear she’d lost him, and she would regret the words she’d left unspoken. So many moments had passed, so many opportunities for her to tell him, but she’d let them all slip away. Now it was  _ him _ who was about to slip away, along with the future they could have had if she’d only been brave enough to follow her heart. 


End file.
